“Yes, I was on the roof,” she said, fighting to keep the confusion and heat out of her voice. “And yes, I heard you talking about STAT and how you thought they could get information on supernaturals. Butno, there was no elaborate scheme to lure you in here to help me. If you remember, you’re the one who showed up at my door, which kind of blows that theory out of the water.”
She didn’t mention she’d gone to his apartment barely thirty minutes ago for the express purpose of asking him for help. That would mean admitting he was right in his accusations, which was never going to happen.
“You might not have invited me in with the intention of using me as a way to get to STAT, but you certainly jumped on the opportunity when it presented itself,” he pointed out.
Even if that were all completely true, Karissa couldn’t stop the anger rushing through her. It hurt knowing how little he truly cared about her.
“Okay, yeah, I was hoping that you or these people from STAT could help identify the hit man,” she gritted out. “I know whatever we used to have is long gone, but silly me for thinking you might still care more about my life than keeping score on an old grudge. I see how it is, though, so feel free to take the Powerade with you when you leave.”
Ignoring Hale, she jumped up from the couch, her stomach twinging harder this time. Refusing to let it show, she moved over to the fridge again and dug around until she came out with a Snickers. It was hard as a rock from being so cold, but that was the way she liked them.
Karissa ripped open the wrapper and stood there as she ate, refusing to turn around as she gnawed on the cold candy bar. She wasn’t moving an inch until she heard Hale leave.
Unfortunately, by the time she’d finished the Snickers and savored all that chocolate and peanutty deliciousness, she hadn’t heard a single sound from behind her, much less the door open and close. Deciding that a second candy bar was out of the question, she finally turned around to see Hale still sitting there with an expression on his face that was hard to describe. She wanted to call it contrite but wasn’t quite sure if that was correct.
“I’m sorry,” he said before she could even think about what she might say to him. “I’m not sure where all of that even came from or why I said it, but all I can say is that I’m sorry.”
Part of Karissa—a really big spiteful part—wanted to refuse the apology and tell Hale that he could take his sorry and stuff it where the sun didn’t shine. Because he might not know where all those words had come from, but she did. It was his feelings for her. Or the lack of them, she supposed would be a better way to put it.
Karissa kept those thoughts to herself. Nothing she said would change anything for the better anyway. She needed Hale’s help identifying Patterson’s would-be hit man, so she’d have to bite her tongue for a while longer.
“Then you’ll help me?” she asked. “You’ll talk to these friends of yours and see if they’ve ever heard of this supernatural I’m up against who wants to kill Patterson—and now me, apparently?”
Hale winced a little at that, the low blow bringing Karissa more satisfaction than it probably should have. But he finally nodded, which was a win as far as she was concerned.
“Of course I’ll help you,” he said quickly, like he was trying to make up for his earlier words. “But before we contact STAT about whether they can ID this supernatural, I’d like to talk to you about something else first.”
“What’s that?” Karissa asked warily, suddenly wondering if she should be worried.
“When I asked if this killer might be like you, you said something about the gifts you have only being given to one person at a time. What did you mean by that? What kind of gifts were you given and when?”
Karissa sighed. She’d known that asking Hale for help would almost certainly end with her secret coming out. Considering how similar her abilities were to the hit man’s, it was practically a given. But she was willing to tell him if it led her to learning what she wanted to know. At some point in the future, she expected Hale to return the favor when it came to spilling personal secrets, though. And she had no doubt that he was keeping a lot of them.
“I became a Paladin on my sixteenth birthday,” Karissa said, leaning back against the counter. “That means I’ve been gifted with the powers of a filia palladis—a Daughter of Athena. Those gifts—which include many of the things you’ve seen me do—are only given to one person at a time. After me, someone else in the world will be selected to carry the gift. And considering the fact that this thing I fought tonight has apparently killed multiple Paladins in his life, the next person might not have to wait very long.”
“A Paladin?” Hale whispered softly, looking completely baffled. “Um, maybe you should back up and start from the beginning because I don’t have any idea what you’re talking about.”
Chapter 9
Athena was real?
Hale’s head spun at a hundred miles an hour as he wondered whether Karissa was simply messing with him. Not that it wouldn’t be called for. He had been acting like an a-hole just now.
“You remember how crappy I felt that night of my sixteenth birthday party?” Karissa was asking, dragging his attention back to the conversation at hand and the woman who’d had him completely off-balance since the moment he’d seen her coming toward him in the hallway.
“Vaguely,” he said, trying to recall those memories, digging into the far reaches of his hard drive. “We chalked it up to you eating too much red velvet cake, right?”
“Yeah,” Karissa murmured, her lips curving in a small smile. “That was what we thought even though I’d only had one piece. It was a big piece no doubt, but not big enough to make me sick. I went to bed a few minutes after you left the party but woke up a little while later to find my whole body glowing, my muscles twitching out of control, and a sword that kept appearing out of nowhere every time I put my hand out. As you can imagine, my parents completely freaked out.”
“Wow,” Hale whispered, remembering back to those days right after his body had started going through the changes that would end with him being a werewolf. It had been hellish, but at least he’d never had to worry about glowing in the dark. “Weren’t you scared?”
“Of course,” she admitted. “My parents got me into the car, ready to take me to the hospital, but the symptoms disappeared before we even got to the end of the driveway. No matter how scared I was, there was a part of me completely fine with not going. I wasn’t exactly thrilled at the idea of a bunch of doctors poking and prodding me like some kind of science project. Ultimately, the symptoms came back, but every time we’d even consider going to the hospital, they’d disappear again. It was nerve-racking.”
“So what did you do?”
Hale completely understood not wanting strangers getting that close to him. He’d refused to go to the hospital himself, even when his fangs had come out in the middle of a nightmare.
“Honestly? I hid.” She gave him a sheepish shrug. “It wasn’t my bravest moment, I admit, but I was a sixteen-year-old kid and confused and terrified. I stayed in my bedroom for days, refusing to let anyone see me. Until the priest showed up.”
